Revised plan for former Green Acres site 'a big, big deal,' doubles open space

Northbrook village officials have expressed support for a revised plan for the former Green Acres Country Club site that includes double the open space previously envisioned.

The village plan commission voted unanimously Sept. 20 not to approve Erickson Senior Living's plan for a continuing care retirement community on the property. After the denial, Erickson made significant changes to the plan that required a further review, village board President Kathryn Ciesla said.

The village board's committee of the whole reviewed the revamped plan during its Dec. 13 meeting. Ciesla said she would like to conduct a public hearing in the new year at a joint session of the village board and plan commission.

Though a couple of buildings switched locations, the entities within the proposal at 916-1002 Dundee Road hadn't changed much. It still included 800 independent living units and 155 health care beds in 108 units. They would be housed in seven 3- and 4-story residential buildings of between 84 and 132 units, plus the health care center, a temporary marketing center, and a 20-unit community building.

The development would include 816 parking spots under buildings and 414 surface parking spots.

Erickson's Marian Navarro called the new plan "transformative."

"Fully two-thirds of the property, or roughly 80 acres, will be dedicated to open space available in perpetuity to the residents of Northbrook and beyond, and offering a range of uses for the entire Northbrook community," she said.

Initially, the retirement community was to occupy 83 of the 127 acres of what trustees had called the "Emerald of Northbrook."

The doubling of the open space creates a larger buffer zone plus three areas for what landscape architect Ken Weikal termed passive recreation uses, and the southern section near the Dundee Road entrance for active and family recreation.

He suggested possible uses including walking trails, disc golf, pickle ball, a dog park, fishing pond and other possibilities. Weikal said the project modeled the Northbrook Climate Action Plan, and was inspired by Grayslake's Prairie Crossing, a "conservation community" whose fans include Northbrook trustees Muriel Collison and Heather Ross.

"To go from a 130-acre private country club that looked pretty if you had a drone, or a membership, to two-thirds of this space where all of our residents are going to be able to use it, is a big, big deal," Ciesla said.

Erickson counsel Katie Jahnke Dale said to reduce impact on Northbrook's emergency services, Erickson Living agreed to contract with a private ambulance service. Jahnke Dale also was scheduled to meet with the Illinois Department of Transportation this week to discuss installing a traffic signal at the entrance on Dundee Road.

"I don't see this moving forward without getting that stop light," Trustee Jojo Hebl said.

Trustees found other discrepancies. Collison said she hoped power lines could be buried, and that the whole enterprise could be moved farther south on the property to give more relief to the neighbors on Morrison Road to the north.

A sticking point for Ross was the availability of actual affordable housing in a project whose entrance fee could be up to $450,000. Erickson, however, did include an affordable housing plan without defaulting to in-lieu payments to a village fund.

Getting the Northbrook Park District on board to manage those 83.87 acres of public land also must be arranged.

Overall, though, trustees liked the redo.

"I think this is a much better point to go forward with," Trustee Bob Israel said. "I'm pretty happy about it."